Given the Greens are still guaranteeing to support the government on questions of confidence and supply, it means virtually nothing for Labor’s hold on the Parliament until the September 14 election.

“What has become manifestly clear is that Labor, by its actions, has walked away from its agreement with the Greens, into the arms of the big miners," Senator Milne said.

Honestly, it would be easier to take this seriously if she had mounted a more credible argument for why the relationship was over, or even if it had happened before the current Parliament had reached the fag end of its legislative agenda.

“The Labor government is no longer honouring our agreement to work together,’’ she said. “Labor has effectively ended its agreement with the Greens. Well, so be it.’’

Except the mining tax was never part of the agreement between Labor and the Greens.

In trying to exploit Labor’s woes on the mining tax by arguing the Greens could not stay wedded to a party that was “in the arms of" the big miners – almost three years after the mining tax deal was done, and after supporting the passage of the mining tax – the Greens look just a little too desperate to struggle for relevance.

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And it can only leave all parties involved pondering the cost of the deal and its benefits.

The Greens continue to insist that the eventual deal done on a carbon scheme was better than the carbon pollution reduction scheme negotiated in 2009.

Lots of people would disagree and we mention the insistence that there be an extension of the fixed-price period for the carbon scheme (the genesis of the “carbon tax") as an item with a fatal cost to Labor for a very unclear benefit to the Greens, or the environment for that matter.

Labor also suffered from perceptions that the Greens had too much influence on its policies, even if the reality was that Labor always rebuffed major Greens policy pushes on things like gay marriage.

Having said that, the Greens benefited from getting regular access to Prime Minister
Julia Gillard
and from influencing policies such as dental health. Its advocacy of a Parliamentary Budget Office was a good move for parliamentary transparency.

Perhaps the greatest benefit Senator Milne has delivered the government is in walking away from the deal and, in the ultra short-term, creating a small distraction from Labor’s leadership woes. The real life-raft the Greens could offer Labor would be to let it cut back the fixed-price period for the carbon scheme (although that would have revenue implications and Labor has never suggested it wants to do this).

The Greens’ move really only formalises what would inevitably happen as the election date got closer: both parties to the agreement would start having to advocate their policies for the next parliament, not ones formulated for the present one.

The real positioning going on at the Press Club yesterday must be about the seat of Melbourne – the Greens’ jewel in the crown, its one lower house seat, held by
Adam Bandt
.

The Greens are under pressure on their policy positions in Melbourne from a hard-core constituency unhappy about the continuing growth of the coal industry and the Greens’ alliance with Labor. Three of its senators –
Sarah Hanson-Young
, Scott Ludlam and Peter Whish-Wilson – are also under pressure in their Senate races.

Having scored 11.8 per cent of the primary vote at the 2010 election and enjoying double-digit support until the end of last year, the Greens’ vote is under pressure as the electorate polarises in a bitter political fight.